NVDA 2022.2 Released

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2022.2 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

Highlights

This release includes many bug fixes. Notably, there are significant improvements for Java based applications, braille displays and Windows features.

New table navigation commands have been introduced. Unicode CLDR has been updated. LibLouis has been updated, which includes a new German braille table.

Please note, after updating any software, it is a good idea to restart the computer. Restart by going to the Shutdown dialog, selecting “restart” and pressing ENTER. Updating software can change files which are in use. This can lead to instability and strange behaviour which is resolved by rebooting. This is the first thing to try if you do notice anything odd after updating.

Links

While downloading NVDA, please consider becoming a monthly donor. Contributions like yours help NV Access continue our important work.

We also have a range of training material in the NV Access Shop to help you increase your skills with NVDA. Start with the popular Basic Training for NVDA in electronic text, audio and braille. Save with the NVDA Productivity Bundle. This includes Basic Training, all our Microsoft Office training, and telephone support.

• Download NVDA 2022.2
• What’s new in NVDA 2022.2

Close-up photograph of NVDA logo in notification area.

In-Process 15 July 2022

We are getting close to a new NVDA release! Let’s start with that:

2022.2 RC1

NVDA 2022.2 RC1 is now available! As a release candidate build, this is the final step before the stable build comes out. We encourage all users to download and test the NVDA 2022.2 Release Candidate. If any issues are identified, it is easier to address them now before the final version comes out.

NVDA 2022.2 includes many bug fixes. Notably, there are significant improvements for Java based applications, braille displays and Windows features.

New table navigation commands have been introduced. Unicode CLDR has been updated. LibLouis has been updated, which includes a new German braille table.

Read more and download from: the NVDA 2022.2 Release Candidate announcement.

Java updates

One of our big updates this time around is: “significant improvements for Java based applications”. While Java isn’t as widely used as it used to be, it is still popular in many programming environments. IntelliJ is one popular IDE which benefits from these updates. Adobe Reader also uses Java and will benefit from these improvements. We are aware of issues with Adobe Reader at present and have been working with Adobe to address these. Adobe have recently started rolling out some fixes from their side. These have greatly helped the situation for many users. We are currently testing some additional fixes from our side which are too late for NVDA 2022.2. These are on track for 2022.3 and should further improve the experience with Adobe Reader for all users.

Thanks to ISCB.de

Interessengemeinschaft sehgeschädigter Computerbenutzer e.V., or ISCB is the Interest group for visually impaired computer users in Germany. They are great supporters of NV Access and encourage their users to donate to support us. Donations like theirs help keep NVDA free for anyone to use, anywhere in the world. We extend our heartfelt thanks to ISCB, and to all our generous donors! Check out the great work ISCB do at https://www.iscb.de/

We are equally grateful to those who came on board recently during our #NVeofy call to action, and to those who have been donating quietly for years! We appreciate you all.

The History of Screen Readers

History of Screen Readers cover image (from The Verge article) – features a stylized geometric person sitting on a tower covered in screens and cables with sound waves coming out to either side, all in blues, pinks and turquoise.

The Verge have published an article on “The Hidden History of Screen Readers”. The article goes from the early days of screen readers in the 1970s through to the cutting edge of NVDA today. The piece also picked up on one of the key reasons NVDA exists. It notes the “hefty price tag of commercial screen readers”. This contrasts with “89% of people with vision loss come from low and middle income countries”. “For a long time, a good, reliable screen reader was simply not an option for the majority of blind or partially sighted people around the world”. The article goes on to cover Mick and Jamie’s friendship, the formation of NV Access and the rise of NVDA into the force it is today. The article also has an interview with programmer and NVDA user, Tuukka Ojala. Read the full article on The Verge.

An online publication, The Verge was founded in 2011 “to examine how technology will change life in the future for a massive mainstream audience”. This week, the Verge are running a series of stories for Accessibility Week. As well as the History of Screen Readers, there are interesting stories on ride sharing and on twitter accessibility bots. All these articles are available in The Verge Accessibility Week section.

CAVI Python course

The Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired is part of Curtin University, in Western Australia. They regularly run online courses for screen reader users anywhere in the world. They have just announced their next term of courses, which includes “Python Essentials”. Given much of NVDA is written in Python we often get questions about learning Python. If you are interested in learning Python, this is a great opportunity we’d encourage you to explore!

Find out more from CAVI’s Facebook post.

NVDA Certification update discount

NVDA Expert Certification image (NVDA logo with a ribbon and wearing a mortarboard).

If you’d like to hone your NVDA skills first, a great place to start is Basic Training for NVDA. It is available in electronic text, human-read audio and UEB Braille.

If you’re confident with the material in Basic Training for NVDA, the NVDA Certified Expert Exam will help you tell the world about your skills! You can also advertise the services you provide on our Certified Experts list! We regularly direct users there who are looking for a local expert to help them.

If you have purchased NVDA certification previously, you are eligible to update your certification at a massive 50% discount! You can upgrade to the latest NVDA Certified Expert 2022 certificate with 50% off. Select the “NVDA Expert Certificate Renewal” option before heading to the checkout.

That’s all for this week. Please do test out the NVDA 2022.2 Release Candidate. If you find anything not as it should be, please do let us know as soon as possible. All going well, by the time you are next reading In-Process, NVDA 2022.2 should be out. We’ll be back then with more details.

NVDA 2022.2rc1 available for testing

The Release Candidate (RC) of NVDA 2022.2 is now available for download and testing. We encourage all users to download this RC and provide feedback. Unless any critical bugs are found, this will be identical to the final 2022.2 release.

Highlights

This release includes many bug fixes. Notably, there are significant improvements for Java based applications, braille displays and Windows features.

New table navigation commands have been introduced. Unicode CLDR has been updated. LibLouis has been updated, which includes a new German braille table.

Links

• Download NVDA 2022.2rc1
• What’s new in this release of NVDA
• Please report any issues on GitHub.

NVDA 2022.2beta3 available for testing

Beta3 of NVDA 2022.2 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome you to download the beta and provide feedback.

Changes from Beta 2:

• Updates to translations
• Hidden text will again continue to be announced in Wordpad and other rich edit controls. This will fix a performance issue in Baraha applications introduced in beta 1.

Changes from Beta 1:

• Updates to translations
• Fixed a bug where running a program with a period “.” in the name (e.g. “3.calc.exe”) would prevent its corresponding App Module (e.g. “calc.py”) from functioning.

Highlights

This release includes many bug fixes. Notably, there are significant improvements for Java based applications, braille displays and Windows features.

New table navigation commands have been introduced. Unicode CLDR has been updated. LibLouis has been updated, which includes a new German braille table.

Links

• Download NVDA 2022.2beta3
• What’s new in this release of NVDA
• Please report any issues on GitHub.

In-Process 29th June 2022

Work continues apace as we move ever closer to NVDA 2022.2! That isn’t the only moving we’ve been doing – read on for more:

RSB Tech Fest

Mick, Quentin and Sean at RSB Tech Fest 2022

Last week, Mick, Sean and Quentin travelled to Adelaide for RSB Tech Fest. This was an even run by the Royal Society for the Blind, at their new Pirie Street headquarters.

Adelaide is over 700 km / 450 miles northwest of Melbourne, Australia. It is the capital of the state of South Australia.

Tech Fest was the first time we had been able to travel anywhere since 2019. It was also the first time Quentin and Sean had met in person.

The event was a great chance to meet users, service providers and other organisations.

Here is Mick, Sean and Quentin with the representatives of Dot Inc, who make the Dot Pad Braille graphics tablet, at RSB Tech Fest

Sean demonstrating NVDA to RSB Executive Director Damian Papps

As well as meeting lots of people excited about NVDA, we gave a presentation. We had a room full of people all keen to hear about the latest NVDA news. As a reader of In-Process, you are already well-informed and on top of all the recent news. If you are a new reader, welcome! Here are a couple of highlights:

• On 16th June we answered “What is CLDR?”
• On 31st May we had just released 2022.1 and also had an update to the NVDA certification
• On 18th May we highlighted a tutorial in Ukrainian to help those fleeing the invasion
• On the 3rd May we answered the question “What does NVDA stand for?”

That’s only the last two months AND only picking one item out of each, there was much more content in each edition!

NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022

Complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022 on Google Docs

The survey will be closing soon, so we’d love you to have your say as soon as possible.

NVeofy

Have you seen our NVeofy campaign? Ok, more like a simple call to action. We’re encouraging anyone who can afford it, to consider donating to our end of financial year appeal. The easiest way to donate is at NVAccess.org. Every donation, no matter how much, is greatly appreciated. Every contribution goes towards keeping NVDA free for anyone who can use it! If you can’t afford to donate, please don’t feel pressured! You are exactly the reason it is so crucial for us to deliver NVDA for free to anyone who needs it.

Text NVEOFY in purple with the O being the NV Access logo. Designed like a car registration plate with text “Empowering lives through” above and “non-visual access to technology” below.

If you would like to donate, please go to the NV Access website. Would you like something in return for your hard-earnt cash? We can help there too! We have a range of training materials and telephone support available for NVDA users from the NV Access shop.

NVDA 2022.2 Beta 2

I promised in the intro that work was continuing apace towards NVDA 2022.2. To illustrate that, may I present, NVDA 2022.2 Beta 2. So many 2s! NVDA 2022.2 Beta 2 includes not one but…. 2 updates – a bug fix when running programs with “.” In the name, and updates to translations. Read more and download the new beta from the NVDA 2022.2 Beta 2 release announcement

Changing NVDA’s keystrokes

After our RSB presentation, we asked for questions. One question which came up was, “How do you add a keystroke to toggle NVDA’s screen curtain?” We introduced Screen Curtain back in NVDA 2019.3. It is a feature which makes the screen entirely black, as if it was off. This is useful from a privacy point of view, and it can help save some battery life on laptops. Windows doesn’t have the ability to completely turn a screen off. Some laptops may have this ability, otherwise, screen curtain is the next best thing. This feature is available via NVDA’s vision settings category. Press NVDA+control+g to open general settings, then control+tab to the “Vision” category. This category includes both Visual Highlight and Screen curtain options. Visual Highlight puts a coloured border around the object with focus. As with other settings, press tab to move through the options and spacebar to check or uncheck. We didn’t assign a keystroke to these functions by default. You can add one yourself using NVDA’s Input Gestures dialog. Here’s a piece out of In-Process from 2020 on setting a keystroke for Screen curtain.

Another question a user asked recently was Why call it “Input gestures”? Why not call it “Keystrokes” or similar? The reason is that you can use any number of different “gestures” to perform actions. As well as the keyboard, you can use keys on your Braille display or actions on a touch screen, or a combination. The dialog also has the ability to emulate system keys. Emulating system keys is powerful as it basically lets you assign a keystroke to ANY gesture. Here’s a piece from earlier this year where we covered Emulating System Keys in detail.

That’s all for this week. Do remember to complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022. If you are in a position to donate for #NVeofy, we’d greatly appreciate it! We’ll be back in July as we get close to NVDA 2022.2!

NVDA 2022.2beta2 available for testing

Beta2 of NVDA 2022.2 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome you to download the beta and provide feedback.

Changes from Beta 1:

• Updates to translations
• Fixed a bug where running a program with a period “.” in the name (e.g. “3.calc.exe”) would prevent its corresponding App Module (e.g. “calc.py”) from functioning.

Highlights

This release includes many bug fixes. Notably, there are significant improvements for Java based applications, braille displays and Windows features.

New table navigation commands have been introduced. Unicode CLDR has been updated. LibLouis has been updated, which includes a new German braille table.

Links

• Download NVDA 2022.2beta2
• What’s new in this release of NVDA
• Please report any issues on GitHub.

In-Process 16th June 2022

It’s a busy time here at NV Access, so let’s see what’s making news this week:

NVDA 2022.1

NVDA 2022.1 has been out for a few weeks now and has been really well received. We’ve previously talked about what UIA means. Last edition we also covered some of the other key features. This time then, I thought I’d dive into the what’s new document and find something a little more obscure to share. So here are a couple for you:

Speech Dictionary

Default Speech Dictionary window with “Remove All” button highlighted

CLDR Update

We’ve also updated CLDR to version 40.0. But what is CLDR? It is the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository. It includes locale information, as well as information about emojis and other characters. This includes how to format dates and currency in different countries. CLDR tells us about emojis and other characters, which enable NVDA to pronounce them. See the Official CLDR Site for more.

And if you’re interested in the list of Emojis, and how they’re described, all in one place, you can check out the Unicode Emoji list

File Explorer Status Bar

And here’s a bug fix which has been a niggling one for awhile. In Windows 8 and later, the File Explorer status bar can now be retrieved using the standard gesture NVDA+end (desktop) / NVDA+shift+end (laptop). This hasn’t worked for some time, but in NVDA 2022.1, it works again.

But what is the status bar? In File Explorer, it gives information about the current file (or the total number of selected files) such as size, or number of files selected. It also displays how many items are in the current folder overall.

File Explorer Status Bar with one file selected

RSB Tech fest

NV Access are travelling again! We’re heading to Adelaide (Australia) for “Tech Fest”, an event run by the Royal Society for the blind. The event runs on Thursday 23rd June and Friday 24th June. We will have an exhibit table, and we’re also presenting a session at 1pm on Friday. Registration of the event as a whole and to attend individual sessions is free, but are required. Please Register for RSB Tech Fest via EventBrite.

NVDA 2022.2 Beta 1

No sooner is that delicious “New program smell” starting to fade from 2022.1 than we have a beta of NVDA 2022.2 available! This is aimed at anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome you to download the beta and provide feedback. More information and download are available at the NVDA 2022.2 beta 1 release announcement.

Focal point

In the lead up to RSB Tech Fest, Quentin spoke with Peter Greco for Vision Australia Radio’s Focal Point show. The interview covers some of the latest updates to NVDA, and starts about 30 minutes in to the show. The interview is around half an hour into the show, but Peter is a great interviewer, and the whole show is a good listen. You can listen to the June 8 edition of Focal Point on Vision Australia Radio.

LinkedIn

NV Access have been on LinkedIn for many years. We haven’t posted much, but that is changing! If you, or your business are on that platform, please do follow NV Access on LinkedIn for all the latest news on that platform.

NVeofy

It’s June, which in Australia at least, means End of Financial Year time. This often means end of financial year sales. It is also a very popular time to make donations. In Australia, donations over $2 are tax deductable. So, we’re calling this June #NVeofy. We encourage those who can afford to make a donation, to please consider contributing.

We are very grateful for all donations, large or small. Each one helps us continue to update and provide NVDA for free to anyone around the world.

You can donate to NVDA Access from our Donation page.

NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022

The NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022 is now on. It’s only a very short, three question survey, so if you haven’t participated yet, please do feel encouraged to do so. Complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022 here.

That’s all for this week! We’ll be back soon with more news and information.

NVDA 2022.2beta1 available for testing

Beta1 of NVDA 2022.2 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome you to download the beta and provide feedback.

Highlights

This release includes many bug fixes. Notably, there are significant improvements for Java based applications, braille displays and Windows features.

New table navigation commands have been introduced. Unicode CLDR has been updated. LibLouis has been updated, which includes a new German braille table.

Links

• Download NVDA 2022.2beta1
• What’s new in this release of NVDA
• Please report any issues on GitHub.

In-process 31st May 2022

The big news this time around, is, of course, the release of NVDA 2022.1! Let’s start there:

NVDA 2022.1

NVDA 2022.1 came out last week. Here are the highlights from the release announcement: “This release includes major improvements to UIA support with MS Office. For Microsoft Office 16.0.15000 and higher on Windows 11, NVDA will use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word documents by default. This provides a significant performance improvement over the old Object model access.

There are improvements to braille display drivers including Seika Notetaker, Papenmeier and HID Braille. There are also various Windows 11 bug fixes, for apps such as Calculator, Console, Terminal, Mail and Emoji Panel.

eSpeak-NG and LibLouis have been updated, adding new Japanese, German and Catalan tables.”

Let’s back up to that first point, about improvements to Office with UIA. If you’re wondering just what is “UIA”, or “UI Automation”, then wonder no more! We posted some information about UIA here in In-Process last year. At that time we had added experimental support for it in Excel and Chromium.

NVDA 2022.1 has many improvements, fixes and new features and we encourage all users to update.

Add-ons

NVDA 2022.1 is an add-on compatibility breaking release. This means that add-on authors need to update their add-ons to be compatible with this release. Having done that, most add-ons should be compatible from NVDA 2021.1 through to the 2022.x releases.

If you are wondering if your favourite add-on has been updated, the majority have. As of Monday 30th May, roughly 80% of add-ons work with NVDA 2022.1. Thanks Joseph and Noelia for all your hard work with the add-on community and for keeping us informed!. They have collated Add-ons and backwards incompatible NVDA releases. That page also includes contact details for add-ons which have not yet been updated. If your favourite add-on hasn’t been updated, please do reach out to the author.

NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022

NV Access is pleased to invite you to participate in the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022. As in previous years, this is a simple, three-question survey. The survey is open to NVDA users and testers around the world. We encourage everyone to complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022.

The survey will be open until early July. Please do participate, and share with others, thank you!

NV Access Survey mockup image

Certification Update

NV Access is pleased to announce the availability of the NVDA Certified expert 2022. This update brings the NVDA Certified Expert exam into line with the newly released NVDA 2022.1. We’ve already been busy sending out updated certificates, and we’d love it if you join them! A reminder for those who have purchased the certification, the update comes at a 50% discount!

So, what is the NVDA Expert Certification? Simply, it’s an online exam which tests your knowledge of all things NVDA. The exam itself is free to sit, so anyone can do it. Once you pass, you have the option to purchase the certificate. Purchasing the certification gets you exclusive benefits:

• Listing on https://certification.nvaccess.org/. You can also list your professional contact details. That way, people looking for a local NVDA expert can find you. We at NV Access also use the list when people ask us if there is someone local who can help them. The more information you put there, the easier it is to get people who need help in touch with people who can help them.
• A professional, accessible certificate in PDF form. If you choose, you can print it out on letter or A4 paper and frame it.
• A badge you can include in your email signature or on your website. Highlight your professionalism with your certification!

Carlos Esteban Martínez Macías holding NVDA Certified Expert Certificate and with hand on PC keyboard

Pictured above is Carlos with his certificate. Read more about Carlos, an ‘Ace’ of Technology in Ecuador in our NVDA Stories. Have you updated your certification? We’d love a photo of you with your certificate via E-Mail or on Twitter!

GitHub Blog mention

GitHub is the site we use for our Issue Tracker and where you can find NVDA’s source code. This week, there was an article on the GitHub blog about accessibility. The title is “How we’re continuing to enable all developers to build”. The piece includes info on GitHub accessibility and links to accessibility related projects. We’d encourage you to read it for that already. NVDA is one of the “amazing open-source accessibility projects” they chose to highlight. This is exciting, and we thank GitHub for the shout out. The article includes ways you can contribute to accessibility in projects including NVDA.

Thanks GitHub!

State of Digital Accessibility donation

Level Access is a company who “empowers organizations to create accessible & inclusive digital experiences”. Each year they publish the State of Digital Accessibility Report. “A report full of Insights, trends, and tips to help organizations better serve people with disabilities.”

Each year, Level Access make a donation to a worthy cause. They asked participants in the 2022 survey to nominate a disability-related non-profit to receive a $5,000 donation. This year, the chosen organisation was WebAIM. You might be familiar with them from the WebAIM Million and from their WebAIM Screen Reader User survey). WebAIM generously chose to split the donation with NV Access. We are very grateful to WebAIM, Level Access and all of the survey participants. Thank you!

That’s all for this week. Do download NVDA 2022.1 if you haven’t already. Remember to have your say in the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2022, and test your skill with the NVDA Expert Certification exam!

NVDA 2022.1 Released

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2022.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

Highlights

This release includes major improvements to UIA support with MS Office. For Microsoft Office 16.0.15000 and higher on Windows 11, NVDA will use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word documents by default. This provides a significant performance improvement over the old Object model access.

There are improvements to braille display drivers including Seika Notetaker, Papenmeier and HID Braille. There are also various Windows 11 bug fixes, for apps such as Calculator, Console, Terminal, Mail and Emoji Panel.

eSpeak-NG and LibLouis have been updated, adding new Japanese, German and Catalan tables.

Important Note:

• This release breaks compatibility with add-ons made for NVDA 2021.3.5 and earlier.

Please note, after updating any software, it is a good idea to restart the computer. Restart by going to the Shutdown dialog, selecting “restart” and pressing ENTER. Updating software can change files which are in use. This can lead to instability and strange behaviour which is resolved by rebooting. This is the first thing to try if you do notice anything odd after updating.

Links

While downloading NVDA, please consider becoming a monthly donor. Contributions like yours help NV Access continue our important work.

We also have a range of training material in the NV Access Shop to help you increase your skills with NVDA. Start with the popular Basic Training for NVDA in electronic text, audio and braille. Save with the NVDA Productivity Bundle. This includes Basic Training, all our Microsoft Office training, and telephone support.

• Download NVDA 2022.1
• What’s new in NVDA 2022.1

Close-up photograph of NVDA logo in notification area.